The present disclosure herein relates to semiconductor devices and methods of fabricating the same and, more particularly, to magnetic devices and methods of fabricating the same.
As faster and lower power consuming electronic devices are desired, semiconductor memory devices used therein also need to have a faster read/write operation and/or a lower operating voltage. As one plan to satisfy one or more of the above requirements, a magnetic memory device has been proposed as a semiconductor memory device. Since the magnetic memory device operates at higher speed and has a nonvolatile characteristic, it has drawn attention as a next generation memory device.
A magnetic memory device may include two magnetic layers, e.g., a free layer and a fixed layer (or a reference layer), separated by a nonmagnetic spacer layer or an insulating barrier layer. A resistance value of the two magnetic layers may vary depending on magnetization directions of the two magnetic layers. For example, when magnetization directions of the two magnetic layers are parallel to each other, the two magnetic layers may have a relatively small resistance value. Alternatively, when magnetization directions of the two magnetic layers are anti-parallel to each other, the two magnetic layers may have a relatively large resistance value. The magnetic memory device may be used to write/read data by using a difference between the resistance values.